Award Data

In most critical software systems, a state that is partially visible through values passed across interfaces contains information that could determine the health of the software system, and whether a failure is likely in the future. Some of this information behaves in a continuous fashion, e.g., the available memory or disk space is easily interpreted to monitor system health. Other values are nom ...

Nanometrology International, Inc. (NMI) proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of 3-dimensional (3D) characterization of nanoscale objects using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) with a measurement uncertainty of less than 0.7 nm. To accomplish this task, we propose a novel method of 3D tip characterization and use of an innovative surface reconstruction algorithm recently introduced by NIST and th ...

The technical objective of this project is to develop a prototype of a face recognition application in a cloud computing environment utilizing MBARK as the middleware. The application will have a client piece that will run on a mobile device such as a laptop and a server piece that will run on a higher-performance computing cluster. The specific objectives of this development project can be enumer ...

This Phase 2 project targets the completion of the development of an improved system for the broadcasting of the WWVB signal, as a direct continuation of the Phase 1 project, which successfully validated the proposed approach through a feasibility study and analyses. Objectives of this project include the design of the new modulation scheme and protocol, the development of a new time-code generato ...

Commercial producers of nursery crops, plant seed, and food crops all require assurance of healthy planting stock. To address this need, laboratories, institutions and agencies, worldwide, use a variety of methods to examine plant materials and demonstrate that seeds, cuttings, and plants test free of pathogens. Such tests provide crops a passport to travel and give the grower confidence that a he ...

Plants are under almost constant attack by fungal pathogens in the environment and economic losses are a frequent consequence of this assault. To avoid or reduce economic loss, synthetic chemical fungicides have been traditionally used to keep the development of disease in check. However, the impact of chemical pesticides on the environment and human health can be harmful; this impact has been wel ...

Agrochemical sales is a vast world market which exceeded $119 billion in sales in 2009 and is expected to grown at a rate of 10.4% in the next 3 to 5 years. China and India are the world's largest users of agrochemicals. This has allowed Asia to dominate the market and account for 43% of sales. The US is the second largest revenue generator, bringing in approximately 20% of global agrochemica ...

Shading vegetables and fruits can reduce temperatures resulting in improved fruit set, increase fruit size and quality, and reduce water consumption. Shading materials for reducing light intensity or transmission have been used extensively in the nursery industry as well as with large commercial growers of high value fruits and vegetables for many years. The physiological processes of plants have ...

Diligent is responding to the USDA FY2011 Research Priority: "Developing and using interactive, information technology for nutrition educators and teachers to increase nutrition awareness and improve health and intervention strategies to address obesity among children." Diligent Consulting, Inc., a Service Disable Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), addresses this strategic goal of improving th ...

The Illinois Soybean Association and the USDA initiated and supported the original research project that produced the prototype Global Food in 3?D and underlies the proposed new product, Global Feed in 3?D. The expected user groups were small and mid?sized farmer leaders and allied analysts and stakeholders as a result of the research's original design and goals. The research outcome of this ...